FrankHarveyHiFi:zztop: FrankHarveyHiFi:Proac do go very well with Naim - the majority of our Proac is bought by Naim customers. You shouldn't have any problems near to a wall, and this will be helped by front porting rather than rear. As always, it's usually worth trying at least one alternative, so as long as you're not running the Nait 5i to it's max, give the ATC SCM11's a try. Their sealed cabinet is ideal for near wall placement, and also match the Naim very well. Dear David & Rick,
Would my Nait have enough power to drive these brilliant speakers? They say you need at least 100watt to drive them efficiently. Do you think that the ATC is far better than the 110? How do you compare them characteristicly? BTW, I'm currently using the check Soundstyle Z stands. Tq all for your adviseI'll keep things as simple as possible.
The ATC's are fantastic all rounders, playing pretty much any music you can throw at them. They produce a nicely balanced sound with no specific section (bass/mid/treble) taking over the mix. Positioning isn't much of a problem either due to their sealed cabinets. As previously mentioned. some care is needed when partnering the SCM range with amplification due to their lower sensitivity. They're similar in this respect to the Spendor A5's, which are noticably quieter compared to other speakers for the same amplifier volume level. Some amplifiers will start running out of steam when used near their max output (generally the 12 o'clock position on the dial), and to be honest, an amplifier is going to sound much better when it doesn't have to be pushed that far, and will sound much more effortless when it has some headroom to fall back on with things get busy.
The Proacs are probably not quite as good all rounders as the ATC's, but this is mainly referring to more electronic based music, and music such as Boards Of Canada which uses a lot of samples and electronic beats/noises. I felt the ATC's handled this better. But musically, they can be just as good, and maybe even surpass them with certain styles of music, say a string quartet or woodwind based music. Their placement isn't too much of a problem as they're front ported, and their balance is a little different to the ATC's. Overall, it's worth auditioning both to hear the difference for yourself, and to make sure the amplifier they're going to be used with is going to be man enough for the job.
When we were playing about with the SCM11's to see where they fitted in with our extensive speaker range, we first tried them on the end of the Nait 5i. They sounded great, but just felt that when pushed, the Nait wasn't quite fully coping, which was confirmed when we moved them onto the Nait XS. Personally, I'd recommend this as the sort of amplifier people should be aiming for when looking at this range, whether they start at this point, or use their current amp within it's limits, until they can upgrade.
Better stands will be highly recommended - I believe I've recommended some earlier in this thread or another similar one.
Dear David,
Thank you so much for the valuable advise. You the man.